Ap Literature Terms

Front 1

Antimetabole

Back 1

A sentence strategy in which the arrangment of ideas in the second clause is a reversal of the first.

Basically, repeating the first part of the sentence, but in an inverted order.

Example: "And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you."

Front 2

Asyndeton

Back 2

A deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses that is intended to speed up the pace of the sentence.

Example: "Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me; a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was."

Basic definition: lack of conjunctions to speed up the sentence.

Front 3

Apostrophe

Back 3

A form of personification in which the absent, or dead, are spoken to as if present, and the inanimate, as if animate.

Example: "It whispered in my heart,
'My daughter, flee temptation!'
'Mother, I will!'"

When her mother was dead.

Front 4

Allusion

Back 4

A reference to a mythological, literary, or historical person, place, or thing.

Example: references to the Bible in the "Rime of an Ancient Mariner"

Front 5

Euphemism

Back 5

Saying something bad in a nicer way; a figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness.

Example: "deceased" for "dead" or "remains" for "corpse."

Front 6

Anaphora

Back 6

The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses; it helps to establish a strong rhythm and produces a powerful emotional effect.

Example: What big eyes you have! What big teeth!

Front 7

Metonymy

Back 7

A form of metaphor.

The name of one thing is applied to another thing in which it is closely related.

Example: "kicks" for shoes, "ride" for car, or in A Tale of Two Cities, "A narrow winding street, full of offense and stench, with other narrow winding streets diverging, all peopled by rags and nightcaps."

Front 8

Idiom

Back 8

An accepted phrase or expression having a meaning different than its literal meaning.

Example: "Are you out of your mind?", "to throw in the towel," "under the weather," or "to make ends meet."

Front 9

Polysyndeton

Back 9

The deliberate use of many conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet) for special emphasis - to highlight quantity or mass of detail.

Also used to create a flowing, continuous sentence pattern to slow the pace of a sentence.

Example:"school habits, and notions, and voices, and faces, and phrases..."

Basic definition: A lot of conjunctions to slow down the pace of the sentence.

Front 10

Synecdoche

Back 10

A form of metaphor.

Where a part of something is used to represent the whole.

Example: "All hands on deck."

Or in reverse, the whole can represent a part.

Example: "Canada played the United States in the Olympic hockey finals."

Front 11

Pun

Back 11

A play on words that are either identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings.

Example: The terrorist's oven was a weapon of mass convection.

or

'We've run out of lemons', she said bitterly.

or

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Front 12

Ellipsis

Back 12

The deliberate omission of a word or words that are readily implied by the context.

Also can represent (...).

Omission of words either by using a (...) in a quote, or by leaving out words that are already implied.

Example: "Please turn in your test when finished" rather than saying in full "Please turn in your test when you are finished."

Front 13

Foil

Back 13

A character, usually minor, designed to illuminate the qualities of a major character.

Characters who bring out each other. foil is a character whose personality and attitude is opposite the personality and attitude of another character to emphasize their personalities.

Front 14

Hubris

Back 14

Arrogance before the god(s).

Front 15

Syllogism

Back 15

A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them.

Example:

All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Socrates is mortal.

or

Major premise: All mortals die.
Minor premise: Some men are mortals.
Conclusion: Some men die.

Front 16

Dynamic Character

Back 16

A character who changes in response to the experience through which they endure.

Exampl'e: Amir in The Kite Runner.